


This House Is Not A Home (Yet)

by invoked_duplicity



Category: Dimension 20 (Web Series)
Genre: Adaine forcefully drags Aelwyn into accepting all kinds of love, Everyone else is helping, Found Family, Gen, Healing, Introspection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-28
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-12 06:14:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 889
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29755311
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/invoked_duplicity/pseuds/invoked_duplicity
Summary: Aelwyn has a hard time adjusting to life in Mordred Manor.
Relationships: Adaine Abernant & Aelwyn Abernant, Aelwyn Abernant & Everyone
Comments: 9
Kudos: 27
Collections: Dimension 20 Alphabet 2021





	This House Is Not A Home (Yet)

Mordred Manor is loud. 

Growing up in a household where it is considered improper to raise your voice never prepared Aelwyn to move into a house where people are shouting all the time—not the angry kind of shouting, just the loud kind where someone yells at the top of their lungs that dinner is ready or if anyone has seen their lucky pair of socks—, or playing music that can be heard all through the garden or people howling with laughter that drips out of open windows. 

Mordred Manor is a complete mess.

Growing up in a household where it would be considered a crime to ever leave some worn socks lying around Aelwyn has to get used to the fact that, in this house, nothing ever stays orderly for more than ten minutes. Jawbone might do his best to tidy up the kitchen, but soon after there will be people piling in, leaving cereal bowls, empty cookie packages, lunch boxes or books everywhere. With so many people living in this house, the laundry machine is always running and barely a day goes by where there is not at least one shirt and a pair of socks lying around on any of the stairs. 

And, most importantly, Mordred Manor is full of love. 

This one is certainly the one that takes the most getting used to, the strangest difference from her old house, the thing that somehow makes her feel like an alien presence on a strange new world with Adaine being the only remnant of a life long past, of a world that was burned to the ground but still lives in her memory so vividly that Aelwyn doesn’t think she’ll ever be able to let it go completely. 

There are all different kinds of love, none of which Aelwyn is sure that she ever really experienced before, or at least not until Adaine reached her hands out for her. 

There is love in the way Fig plays the piano way too late in the evening and sings her heart out to Ayda who cries fiery tears while Sandralynn shouts from upstairs to tone it down that late at night. 

There is love in the way that Jawbone insists on preparing breakfast for all of them in the morning and how Lydia takes over dinners instead to make sure that they’re all well fed every single day. 

There is love in the way that Lydia and Sandralynn kiss and hug their children and also in the way that Jawbone treats all of them despite not being the biological father to anyone in this house. 

There is love in the way The Bad Kids have slumber parties and push mattresses together so they can all form a cuddle pile in the living room, even Fabian who is still kind of officially annoyed about this but still he lies on the bed of mattresses next to Gorgug or Riz and sleeps there despite all his eye-rolling beforehand. 

There is love in the way Fig shouts “I love you like a sister but also fuck you”, as she chases Kristen through the house for using up her favorite shampoo. 

Aelwyn sometimes feels like she might suffocate from being surrounded by all this love that she doesn’t feel a part of, or deserving of. She feels like a spectator, standing outside in the dark and looking in through windows lit brightly, like she can watch everything but no one can see her standing outside. 

Adaine is an insistent presence in all of this, though. 

She drags Aelwyn down to mealtime with the whole household, she insists that Aelwyn joins “game night”, she volunteers Aelwyn’s help for work in the garden with Jawbone, she tells people that Aelwyn can help them with their homework because “she’s really smart” and she somehow manages to fill out the chores-schedule that’s pinned on the wall in the kitchen in such a way that forces Aelwyn to do chores in turn with each and every single member of this household. 

Aelwyn is sure that she is merely tolerated in this household on Adaine’s behalf. 

And yet. 

Both Jawbone and Lydia insist on finding out what kind of food Aelwyn enjoys. 

Fig asks her what her favorite song is and a few days later the sounds of someone practicing that song on the piano float through the whole house. 

Kristen helps her fix a tear in one of her skirts. 

Sandralynn offers to fly her to her therapy sessions as often as she can.

One time Gorgug comes by and he has oranges for everyone—including Aelwyn. 

Ragh drags her along when he goes out to find new sports gear because apparently she has “impeccable taste, dude” and Zayn asks her for her opinions on some spellwork he’s doing. 

Aelwyn wonders if there was ever any chance of escape from this patchwork blanket of a family at all. 

“Hey Aelwyn”, Adaine says one evening while they’re both lying in their beds with a book in hand while a gentle autumn breeze floats through the window. “Are you okay?”

Aelwyn thinks about it for a long while as she listens to a commotion somewhere outside in the garden that sounds a lot like a water balloon fight. 

“Hm”, she says eventually and turns a page. “I will be.”


End file.
